The top reported proficiency rate is 74% in Math. The lowest is 69% in English language arts.
Original Research by School Decision on Mexicayotl Charter School
Mexicayotl Charter School serves kindergarten through eighth grade in Nogales, a border city whose economy is built on international trade, produce distribution, and the maquiladora manufacturing cluster. The school sits in a community shaped by its four ports of entry and the cross-border shoppers who drive a substantial share of local sales tax revenue. Nogales is the Santa Cruz County seat, with civic life anchored in a walkable downtown core that includes government buildings, historic properties, and educational institutions such as the University of Arizona-Santa Cruz and Cochise College. The city has grown modestly in recent years and forms part of the broader Tucson-Nogales combined statistical area.
Every student enrolled at Mexicayotl Charter School is Hispanic or Latino. Free or reduced-price meal eligibility data was not available, and special population counts for students with disabilities and English learners were also missing from the data. The school is small in enrollment for a K-8 campus, with classes spread across all nine grade levels. Because the school serves only through eighth grade, there is no high school graduation rate to report.
The academic picture comes from the 2024-25 state assessments, though a number of grade-level results were suppressed, which the state does when a group is too small to report publicly without risking identification of individual students. Suppressed results appeared in math for fourth through eighth grade, in English language arts for fourth, fifth, and eighth grade, and in science for fifth and eighth grade. Where results were available, the school showed a mix. In third-grade math, a clear majority of students scored proficient. In English language arts, the available results trended higher: third grade showed a majority proficient, sixth grade showed a strong majority, and seventh grade showed an even larger majority proficient. When the data is combined across all tested grades and subjects for which a result was reported, the school's overall proficiency index placed it in the top quartile relative to other districts in Santa Cruz County. That comparison set includes all districts in the county, not just charter schools, so it gives a broad local benchmark.
The school is a charter school operating under Mexicayotl Academy Inc. Charter schools in Arizona are public schools that operate independently of the traditional district structure, with their own governing board. No information was available about any recent changes or initiatives at the district level. Housing values in the Nogales zip code area sit well below state and national benchmarks, which aligns with the border community's economic profile.
For a parent considering this school, the available achievement data shows solid results in the grades where scores were reported, particularly in English language arts in the upper elementary and middle school grades. The suppressed results are a gap that makes it harder to see the full picture across all grade levels. A parent may want to ask the school directly how students in the grades with suppressed scores are performing, and what supports are in place for students who need them. The school's small size and its enrollment of all Hispanic students mean the peer environment is uniform in this demographic dimension, which some families will see as a natural fit for the community and others will weigh against the diversity of larger schools. The charter structure gives the school flexibility in its approach, though the available data does not describe a specific program or instructional model beyond the regular school designation. Families looking for a K-8 pathway in a small school setting with a strong border community context will find this worth a close look.
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